TULSA, Okla. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears will open the 2023-24 season a man short when they take on the Tulsa Golden Hurricane on Monday night at the Reynolds Center.

UCA's All-ASUN guard Camren Hunter is expected to miss the first month of the season with a foot injury. The Bears will still have six other returnees, along with 10 newcomers, when they tip off at 7 p.m. against an American Athletic Conference foe. The game will be carried live on ESPN+ and on 92.7 Jack FM with Justin Acri.

"I am very excited for the season to kick off," said UCA head coach Anthony Boone. "The guys have been working extremely hard for several months now, and although we still have quite a bit of growth left to go through with half the team being new, that growth can only occur now with game experience.

"I'm super excited to see this team start the season. This is a great group of hard working guys, and they have been excited to watch in practice. I'm anxious to see their growth throughout the season."

The Bears, who played two scrimmage/exhibitions over the past two weeks, will be facing the Golden Hurricane for the first time since 2017. Tulsa has won the previous three meetings, all played on its home floor.

UCA is expected to start three returning players and a pair of newcomers. Senior Masai Olowokere, a 6-foot-5 guard, is the most experienced of the five, with 29 starts a year ago. He averaged 7.9 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. Junior guard Elias Cato played in 25 games with six starts and averaged 5.2 points and 4.2 rebounds.

Sophomore guard Johannes Kirsipuu will handle much of the point guard load in Hunter's absence after playing in 29 games as a true freshman. Freshman Javion Guy-King from Little Rock and Sunrise Christian Academy, will spell Kirsipuu at the point.

The newcomers in the lineup will be sophomore transfer Ubongabasi "Glory" Etim from Bowling Green and true freshman Tucker Anderson from Bentonville (Ark.) West High School. Etim is a 6-9, 230-pound forward/center while Anderson is a 6-9, 190-pound forward. Anderson scored 18 first-half points (22 total) and was 5 of 10 from three-point range in the exhibition at ASU last Monday.

The Bears also return 6-8 9orward Ibbe Klintman, who started 16 of the 18 games he played in last year while battling injuries. Sophomore.guard Carl Daughtery Jr., saw action in 23 games off the bench as a true freshman. 

In all, the Bears return 44.9 points and 20.8 rebounds from last year's roster. Hunter, the ASUN Freshman of the Year two years ago, represents 16.9 of those points and 5.0 of the rebounds.

Daniel Sofield, a 6-7 guard and graduate transfer from West Florida, should pick up some of that scoring slack after setting the career three-point record for the Argonauts. 

The Bears will face four Power 5 opponents in the non-conference portion of their schedule, including Vanderbilt (Nov. 17), Kansas State (Nov. 22), Oklahoma (Dec. 28) and Missouri (Dec. 30). Also on the schedule are Eastern Michigan, Loyola Marymount, Hawaii, Southeast Missouri, Little Rock, New Orleans, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Eastern Illinois and Western Illinois.

For the second year, UCA will host an MTE (multi-team event) on Scottie Pippen Court, facing  Eastern Michigan (Nov. 25) and New Orleans (Nov. 26) at the Farris Center.

The Bears' home opener is this Friday against old foe Hendrix on "Salute to Service NIght", in conjunction with the Little Rock Air Force Base. It will be the second year UCA has joined with the LRAFB and UCA ROTC, and will once again include the enlistment ceremony of Air Force recruits at halftime of the game.

"That was an amazing event last year," said Boone. "Of course, getting to play our friends over at Hendrix is a great experience anyway. But coupling it with our ROTC on campus and the Air Force Base, with them commissioning their recruits at halftime, that was an amazing experience, and one that most of us had never seen before.

"Getting to witness that was incredible. That was bigger than the game we played for our guys, the coaches and the fans to get to see that. I'm glad we're able to continue to do that."

Tip-off Friday night is 6:30 at the Farris Center.